Learning Portuguese – Five Fun Facts | Language Services Direct

By Debora Guedes

Did you know that the Portuguese language is influenced by Arabic? Have you ever heard that English and Portuguese actually share the same longest word? Here at Language Services Direct, we teach a huge range of world languages, each with their own unique characteristics. Keep on reading for some surprising facts about the fastest growing European language in the world after English*.

1) If you’ve ever been lucky enough to spend Christmas in a Portuguese-speaking country, you may have discovered that everyone’s favourite Christmas bird, the turkey, is called ‘Peru’ in Portuguese! Confusing, right? And no, Portuguese speakers aren’t just bad at Geography and named turkey (the bird) after the wrong country. Actually, these long-feathered birds come from neither Turkey nor Peru, they actually originate from Mexico and the US!

2) Surprisingly, the Portuguese language is heavily influenced by Arabic. This is a result of the Moors conquering Portugal and Spain in the eighth century, and ruling a large part of the Iberian peninsula for seven centuries. This has greatly affected the Portuguese language, as well as Spanish. To this date, many words derived from Arabic remain in use in Portuguese, such as ‘aldeia’ (village), ‘azeite’ (olive oil) and ‘garrafa’ (bottle).

3) It makes an awful lot of sense to assume that Portugal is home to the most Portuguese speakers, as it has given its name and origin to the Portuguese language, but it’s simply not true! It’s actually in 4th place after Brazil, Mozambique and Angola with only 5% of Portuguese speakers living in Portugal.

4) The letters “K”, “Y” and “W” weren’t part of the official Portuguese alphabet until 2009. They were incorporated into it due to the growing presence of non-native words in everyday language, such as; ‘kung fu’, ‘show’, ‘web’, etc.

5) The longest word in both the Portuguese and English dictionaries share the same meaning:

Portuguese – pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico English – pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

This straightforward, easy to pronounce everyday word (this Brazilian over here is now getting used to some typical British sarcasm!) refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano.

If you’re looking to improve your Portuguese for business purposes, find out more about our business language training.

*according to estimates by UNESCO

About the author

As a Senior Account Manager in our corporate team, Debora manages the language training programmes of a portfolio of key clients in the banking and legal sectors predominantly.

Whilst studying Journalism at university, Debora spent three years teaching English in Brazil, her home country, and discovered a great passion for languages. Her mother tongue is Brazilian Portuguese and she also speaks fluent Spanish. Recently she has been investing time in becoming an Italian speaker too.

After graduating, Debora built her career at language schools and organisations, where she managed language training programmes and was responsible for student welfare. She also worked in business development as a sales executive.

Debora started working at Language Services Direct in April 2014. As one of the Senior Account Managers at the company, she oversees large language programmes for key corporate clients, acting as a central point of content for learners, line managers and L&D professionals. Other aspects of her role include systems development and improvement; trainer recruitment and induction; business development; and coordination of the corporate account management team.